Drafts on chronology: section 2a

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Chap VII.The Monarchy of Egypt at Thebes

The Egyptians seem to have been called Coptites from the Citizens of Coptus growing potent & by degrees conquering all Egypt; & of ἆια Κόφτι the Greeks formed the word Ægypt. For nations had their names originally from the Kings Cities & Provinces which at first subdued & reigned over them. While the shepherds reigned in the lower Egypt, the Coptites grew potent in Thebais, & then conquering & expelling the Shepherds reduced all Egypt into one Monarchy; & this was done by Thmosis or Amosis king of the Coptites about the same time that Saul began to reign over Israel as was shewed above, & laid the foundation of a very great Empire, the successors of Thmosis conquering all the nations round about. Thomosis may be therefore recconed the founder of the Monarchy of Egypt, he being the first king in history who reigned over the whole. He reigned after the expulsion of the shepherds 25 years & 4 months according to Manetho, & by consequence died about the 12th or 15th year of David.

When David smote Edom[1](which was about the 16thyear of his reign as above) the king of Edom's servants fled into Egypt with Hadad a little child of the kings seed, & Pharaoh gave Hadad a house & victuals & land & Hadad found great favour in the sight of the Pharaoh so that he gave him to wife the sister of his own wife Taphenes the Queen. And the sister of Taphenes bare him Genubath, & Genubath was in Pharaohs' house among the sons of Pharaoh untill the death of David. Whence it appears that this King of Egypt was of about the same age with Hadad & began his reign before Hadad fled from David being then very young & therefore succeeded Thmosis, & that at the death of David he had a family of young children contemporary to Genubath. Amongst these children I reccon Solomons young Spouse[2]the chief (or first born) of her mothers children, & her little sister who by reason of her childhood had no breasts, & her brother who sucked the breasts of her mother, & to whom she wishes Solomon were like that she might kiss him whenever she finds him, & lead him & bring him to her mothers house. And <2r> of about the same age with these children was Sesak, so that he may be recconed among the sons of this king. For he led the armies of his father before his own reigne & reigned in the days of Solomon & Rehoboam. And therefore the King of Egypt who succeeded Thmosis was the father of Sesostris.

✝Manetho in his 11th & 12th Dynasties &c
< insertion from f 1v > ✝Manetho in his 11th & 12th Dynasties, as he is cited by Africanus & Eusebius names these four kings of Thebes as reigning in order. Ammenemes, Gesongoses or Sesonchoris the son of Ammenemes, Ammenemes who was slain by his Eunuchs & Sesotris who subdued all Asia & part of Europe. Gesongoses & Sesonchoris are corruptly written for Sesonchosis & the two first of these four kings Ammenemes & Sesonchosis are the same with the two last Ammenemes & Sesostris, that is with Ammon & Sesak. For we have shewed that Sesonchosis Sesostris & Sesak are the same. So then the three first Monarchs of Egypt were Thomosis Ammon & Sesak.

< text from f 2r resumes >

Diodorus tells us[3] that the father of Sesostris gathered together out of all Egypt the male children who were born the same day with Sesostris & placed them with nurses & governours & prescribed to them all the same form of education & discipline being perswaded that they who were so brought up with his son would be most faithfull & usefull to him in his wars. These children he brought up with exercises of daily labours, commanding that none of them should eat till he had run 180 furlongs. By which means they became endued with strong & active bodies & great aspiring minds. Hence I gather that Ammon the father of Sesostris began his reign in Egypt before Sesostris (or Sesak) was born, & by consequence in the reign of David as above, & therefore he was that Pharaoh king of Egypt who married hos wifes sister to Hadad & his daughter to Solomon & took Gezar from the Canaanites & gave it to his daughter for a present & whose reign began a little before Hadad fled from David. And considering the age of his children he seems to have been about 35 or 40 years old at the death of David.

[4]After the shepherds were expelled by Thomosis or Amosis & the Monarchy of Egypt was established at home, Ammon send an army under the command of his son Sesostris into Arabia (perhaps that Arabia which lyes between Egypt & the red Sea) & Sesostris accompanied with those who were brought up with him, destroyed the serpents, & overcoming the want of water & food conquered all that barbarous nation which till then had been unconquered. Then being sent against the nations which lay westward & were not yet conquered by Ammon he subdued the greatest part of Libya altho hitherto a very youth. By the first of these conquests the Troglodytes & some of the Arabic Ethiopians, by the latter all Lybia as far as the river Triton or Capes, came under the dominion of Egypt. And this seems to have given occasion to the trafic of Solomon into Egypt for horses. For Egypt was supplied with horses from Cyrene, a country famous for breeding a <3r> multitude of good horses. Herodotus tells us[5] that the Ammonians being colonies of the Egyptians & Ethiopians spake a language between them both, & that the inhabitants as far as the river Triton used the Egyptian manners but beyond that river lived much other wise. Ammon therefor upon conquering this large region peopled it with colonies from Egypt & called it Ammonia. For in those days it was very usuall to call peoples & regions by the names of their first kings; & Stephanus tell us[6] that the Mediterranean part of Libya & even all Libya was called Ammonia from Ammon. And tho Egypt kept its dominion only to the river Triton yet Sesostris seems to have gone westward to the furthest parts of Afric & there to have erected pillars as he did in all his conquestsVenit ad occasum, mundique extrema Sesostris. Lucan. lib. 1.

After the death of Ammon a[7]Sesostris succeeded in the throne & being encouraged by his former successes aimed at conquering the world. And a[8]first he set upon the Ethiopians southward & compelled that nation to pay tribute, Ebony & Gold & Ivory. Strabo b[9] speaking of the straits of the red sea at Dira a promontory of Ethiopia tells us that a pillar of Sesostris the Egyptian was standing there, which in the sacred letters signified his passing over. For, said Strabo, he seems first to have subdued Ethiopia & Troglodytica, & then passing over[those straits] into Arabia [Felix] to have gone over all Asia wherefore in many places tis called the ditch or trench of Sesostris, & Temples of the Egyptian Gods are found built. In this expedition before he past his army over the straits of the red sea at Dira, c[10]he went through all Ethiopia to the Cinnamon bearing region or promontory Mossylites at the south east corner of Afric, & there were extant in Strabo's days some monuments of this his expedition, & columns & inscriptions. And for facilitating this his expedition d[11] he built a navy of 400 long ships on the Red sea, being the first who built such ships, & thereby he subdued the Islands of the Red sea & the adjoyning continent going as far as India. Pliny e[12] tells us that in an Island <4r> of the red Sea before the haven of Isis were pillars of stone with inscriptions in unknown characters. Diodorus relates these conquests of Ethiopia & Arabia fælix as made in the reign of Sesostris. But I suspect that they were made in the reign of his father Ammon because Ammon was worshipped as a God in all these countries Quamvis Æthiopum populis Arabumque beatisGentibus atque Indis unus sit Iupiter Ammon. Lucan l. 9.

After these conquests & the invasion of the sea coasts on both sides the mediterranean as fas as the straits mouth,[13]Sesak in the fift year of Rehoboam came out of Egypt with 1200 chariots & 60000 horsmen & foot without number of Libyans Troglodytes & Ethiopians & took the fenced cities of Iudah & came to Ierusalem. And God said, the Princes of Israel shall be his servants, that they may know my servitude {that is the servitude of my people) & the servitude ממלכות הארצותof the kingdoms of the earth. So Sesak came up against Ierusalem & took away the treasures of the house of the Lord & the treasures of the kings house. He took all. He carried away also the shields of gold which Solomon had made. 2 Chron. 12. The Libyans, Troglodytes & Ethiopians were therefore subdues & became the servants of Sesak before the fift year of Rehoboam, & by the conquest of Cyrene having procured horses for 60000 horsmen he came out with a very great army raised out of the conquered nations & subdued Iudea & the kingdoms of the earth.

He left Egypt Libya & Ethiopia under the government of several Princes, & a[14]having forces by sea & land he invaded Cyprus & Phenicia & the Assyrians & Medes subduing by force as many as would not submit & being lifted up with the success went on more confidently, subverting the provinces of the east.Thus b[15]leading his army by land he subdued all Asia. For he did not only invade those countries which Alexander of Macedon afterwards acquired but also some nations whose country he did not enter. For he passed over the river Ganges & went through all India as far as the Ocean. <5r> He subdued also the Scythians as far as the river Tanais which parts Europe from Asia & leaving a colony of Egyptians neare the lake Mæotis, founded the nation of Colchos. After the same manner he subdued all the rest of Asia & divers Islands of the Cyclades. Then passing over into Europe & going through all Thrace he was in danger of losing his army through the want of provisions & difficulty of the passages. Wherefore putting an end to his expedition in Thrace he erected pillars in many places of his conquest with this inscriptions in the sacred Egyptian letters: Sesoosis King of Kings and Lord of Lords overcame this country by his arms.In these pillars the privy member of a man was exprest where the nations were stout & warlike & that of a woman where they were timorous & made no resistance. In some places he erected also his own statue in stone holding a bow & lance & being four cubits & four palms high which was his stature.c[16] Anthenodorus & Porphyry say that he conquered most of the nations of Greece & Herodotus that he subdued the Scythians upon the Danube. His words are: d[17]Sesostris having a great army went through the continent subduing all nations before him untill passing over from Asia into Europe he subdued the Scythians & Thracians to whom & no farther the Egyptian army seems to have come because in their territories there appear pillars erected & not beyond them. Most of those pillars were gone before the days of Herodotus, but some he saw in Palestine with the Egyptian writing & weomens genitalls, & in Ionia there were two statues of Sesostris then remaining one in the way from Ephesus into Phocæa the other between Sardes & Smyrna, each holding a dart in the right hand & a bow in the left & the rest of their armature being Ethiopic & Egyptian & upon the breast this inscription in sacred Egyptian letters: I obteined this region by my arms.

In his return a[18] he left a colony of Egyptians at Colchos upon the river Phasis as Herodotus Diodorus & others affirm. Whence it came to pass that the people at Colchos anciently spake the Egyptian language & like the Egyptians used circumcision & ware linnen garments & had crisp hair & a dark complexion & had commerce with the Egyptians, one b[19] Xenocrates sailing in summer to Phasis & in winter to Egypt. And c[20] Æetes king of Colchos was called the son of <6r> the Sun after the manner of the kings of Egypt & his wife & his daughters were very famous for skill in the vertues of plants like the Egyptians. For d[21] Homer tells us that Egypt abounded with plants both medicinal & deadly & that the Egyptians were skilled in medicine above all other mortals being the progeny of Apollo. Also Sesostris left with the people at Colchos geographical Tables which he made of his conquests. For e[22] Eustathius tells us that he made such Tables, & communicated them not only to the Egyptians, but also to the Scythians, by the Scythians meaning the people at Colchos: and f[23] Apollonius Rhodius, & his Scholiast, say that Sesonchosis king of all Egypt, invading all Asia & a great part of Europe peopled many of the cities which he took, & that Æa remained stable ever since his days, with the posterity of those Egyptians whom he placed there, & that they preserved pillars or tables in which all the journeys & the bounds of sea and land were described for the use of them who were to go any whether. These Tables therefore gave a beginning to Geography. derives the Colchi from the h[25] Casluchi a people of the lower Egypt.

Pliny a[26]tells us that Sesostris met with a repuls at Colchos. Iam regnaverat, saith he, in Colchsis Salauces & Esubopes qui terram virgineam nactus plurimum argenti aurique eruisse dicitur in ✝[27] Suanorum gente & alioqui velleribus aureis inclyto regno. Sed et illius aureæ cameræ et argenteæ trabes narrantur & columnæ atque parastatæ victo Sesostre Ægypti rege tam superbo, ut prodatur annis quibusque sorte reges singulos e subjectis jungere ad currum solitus, sicque triumphare. ‡ < insertion from f 5v > ‡Strabo[28] places the Soanes or Suanes upon the mountain Caucasus on the north of Colchos & Dioscurias, & Ptolomy on the north side of the mounttain. And Strabo saith that they were the stoutest of all the Scythian nations & had a king & had a Council of 300 men & could raise an army of 200000, & that the torrents brought gold to them which they gathered with woolly sheepskins, whence the fable of the golden fleece might be occasioned. It seems the progress of Sesostris, after his conquest of Persia & India was stopt by this nation, & therefore he left Prometheus at mount Caucasus with a part of his army to guard his conquests from them & proceeded through Asia minor into Europe, & there meeting with new repulses, he returned through Asia into Egypt, leaving Colonies to cultivate & guard the pass between the Euxine & Caspian seas. So Valerius Flaccus[29]

. . . . . . . . . . . . ut prima Sesostris

Intulerit rex bella Getis, ut clade suorum

Territus, hos Thebas patriumque reducat ad annem,

Phasidis hos imponat agris, Cholchosque vocari

Imperet.

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<7r> So e[34] Valerius Flaccus:

– ut prima Sesostris

Intulerit rex bella Getis; ut clade suorum

Territus, hos Thebas patriumque reducat ad annem,

Phasidis hos imponat agris, Cholchosque vocari

Imperet.

The forces que he left at Colchos under the dominion of Æetes seem to have been a people of the lower Egypt f[35] called in scripture Casluchi & by contraction Colchi, as Bochart well observes. And for the greater security of the pass he seems to have left in that part of Cappadoccia borders upon Colchos another part of his army mixt of Egyptians Philistines & the Shepherds those old inhabitants of Egypt. For there g[36] Bochart finds Caphtor & the Caphtorai a people who h[37] came originally out of Egypt & from whom the Philistines afterward returned back from their captivity into their own land. Have not I brought up Israel out of the land of Egypt, & the Philistines from Captor & the Syrians from Kir. Amos IX.7 The lord will spoile the Philistines the remnant of the country of Caphtor. Ier. XLVII.4. Also upon the Euxine sea at the river Thermodon on the north & north west side of this colony Sesostris placed a colony of his weomen whom the Greeks called Amazons. And Strabo[38] places another body of Amazons at mount Caucasus next Albania, but makes them a colony of the former.

Sesostris having spent nine years in this expedition[39]commanded the nations according to their ability to bring guifts yearly into Egypt, & having outdone all former kings with the greatness of his actions he returned into Egypt with the captives & other spoiles of which he had gathered a vast quantity. Among other captives he seems to have carried away Tithonus a youth beutifull to a proverb: which Tithonus, saith Diodorus[40], was the son of Laomedon & brother of Priam & warring in the eastern parts went as far as Ethiopia, whence came the fable of Memnons being the son of Aurora. Homer[41] calls Tithonus the husband & Memnon the son of Aurora. He <8r> siod[42] calls Memnon the son of Tithonus & Aurora & Pindar[43] calls him the son of Aurora & cousin german of Troilus on of the sons of Priam. He lived to a very great days & spent his days in the court & army of the kings of Egypt. If when he was led away captive, which was in the 14th year of Rehoboam we may suppose his brother Priam to have been a child, the taking of Troy which happened when Priam began to be infirm with old age, may be recconed about 55 or 60 years later then the return of Sesostris into Egypt, or 70 years later then the death of Solomon as above.

When Sesostris in returning home[44] came back to Pelusium, his brother Armais who had been left Governour of Egypt & had revolted & usurped the crown of Egypt, plotted to destroy him by inviting him to a feast & setting fire to the house in the night when he was heavy with wine & asleep, & having by his wifes & concubines many daughter whom during his government of Egypt he had married to the sons of Sesostris, he commanded his daughters to kill their husbands the same night. But Sesostris with his wife & four sons escaping the fire recovered his kingdom, & Armais whom the Greeks call Danaus fled with his daughters in a long ship of 50 oars to Rhodes where they built a Temple & thence they sailed to Greece. This flight was therefore in the 14th& 15th years of Rehoboam After the pattern of this ship the Greeks built the ship Argo[45] which was the first long ship built by the Greeks. And thence I collect that the Argonautic expedition was scarce above 35 or 40 years after the death of Solomon. For it was in the reign of Æetes the founder a[46] of the royal city of Æa, & son of the Sun or first Egyptian king of Colchos, who being one of the Captaines of Sesostris was left there by him to govern that Province.

Clemens Alexandrinus tells us[47] that when Sesostris had conquered many nations of Greece & had returned into Egypt he got together many artificers & Diodorus that he adorned all the Temples of Egypt with exellent gifts & the spoiles of his enemies and in every city built a new Temple to that God which the city chiefly worshipped, & imploying only captives in these works, wrote upon every Temple that <9r> none of the natives were imployed in building it. He cut ditches from the river Nile into all the parts of Egypt as high as Memphys for supplying the cities with water & for carrying to them corn & other commodities by water, & with the earth dug out he raised broad areas of ground commanding the cities to remove thither that they might be defended from the inundation of the river. And amongst other cities it is to be conceived that he adorned the seat of his Empire Thebes suitably to his conquests. This city the Egyptians dedicated to Ammon calling it No-Ammon & Ammon-no, that is the city of Ammon, or as the seventy render the word, Diospolis, the city of Iupiter Ammon. This city therefore was the seat of the Empire in Ammon's reign. He began to build it suitably to his empire & his son Sesak made it more sumptuous. For Hyginus tells us[48] it was first built by Iupiter, that is, by Ammon. His words are Iovis in India Thebas Thebaidos condidit, nomine nutricis suæ, quæ Hecatompylæ appellantur, ideo quod centum portas habent. Sesostris erected also two Obelisks of 120 cubits inscribing on them the greatness of his dominion & tribute with the number of the conquered nations, one of which Obelisks Augustus Cæsar conveyed to Rome. He erected his own & his wives statues of 30 cubits & four others of his sons of 20 cubits & dedicated them to Vulcan in memory of their escaping being burnt by the stratagem of his brother, & these statues were afterwards placed before the Temple of Vulcan at Memphys. He attempted to cut a navigable ditch from the Nile to the Red sea, & the eastern side of Egypt from Pelusium through the desert to Heliopolis by the length of 1500 furlongs he fortified with a wall against the irruptions of the Syrians & Arabians. He built a ship of Cedar 280 cubits long covered over with gold without & with silver within & dedicated it to the God which the Thebans chiefly worshipped. The grownd of Egypt (except the portion of the Priests) he distributed in equal squares among the soldiers who were to hold it by a yearly rent, whence Geometry had its rise. He divided Egypt into 36 Nomes or Provinces & set a Iudge over every Nome & appointed their laws, ordeining that every artificer should follow his fathers imployment. And in doing these things he advised with his secretary Thoth. Ægyptij dicunt Sesostridem a Mercurio solertiam & consilia didicisse. Ælian. var. Hist. lib. XII. c. 4.

Diodorus tells us[49] the Egyptians had these Lawmakers, Mnevis, Sasyches, Sesostris, Boccharis & Amasis, & that <10r> Sasyches made excellent laws relating to the honour & worship of the Gods & found out Geometry & taught Astronomy. Sasyches is the same name with Sesach & therefore denotes the same king with Sesostris, especially since both of them found out Geometry, & Sesostris taught Astronomy to the Chaldeans as shall be shewn hereafter. Thus this king in the greatness of his conquests abroad & multitude of his gifts & works at home exceeded all other kings that ever were & gave laws to Egypt & his way of triumph was suitable to his greatness.[50] For when the kings of the conquered nations came into Egypt with gifts at the times appointed, he treated them with great honour excepting that when he was to enter a Temple or City he ordered the horses to be taken out of his chariot & four kings to draw in their room.Lucan. l. 4

Venit ad occasum mundique extrema Sesostris

Et Pharios currus regum cervicibus egit

As Sesostris by his conquests & magnificence outdid all other kings, so the Egyptians for his greatness & his benefactions towards them honoured him after his death above all their kings, erecting Temples to him & worshipping him under the name of Sirius or O-Siris & celebrating his memory with anniversary solemnities throughout all Egypt, & dedicating to him the Ox which had been worshipped long before in the lower Egypt in memory of the first invention of plowing & sowing. For the Egyptians tell us[51] that Osiris built Thebes with an hundred gates & magnificent Temples, one to his parents Iupiter & Iuno, another to Iupiter cælestis, a third to his father who reigned there before him & whom they call Ammon, & others to others; & in his days Projectors & ingenious Artists were in great esteem, & in Thebes were Goldsmiths & Brasiers for making arms & instruments for husbandry & images of the Gods & golden Altars, & that he went through the world with a great army & taught men to plant vines & sow corn & reduced them from brutish to civil lives. That there went along with those that were skilled in husbandry, as Maro in planting of vines & Triptolemus in sowing of corn <11r> and that Mercury was his Secretary & Counsellour. That in passing through Ethiopia Arabia & India he built many cities & took care to have statues of himself set up in every place as lasting monuments of his expedition, that having passed through the rest of Asia he transported his army over the Hellespont into Europe & Thrace killed Lycurgus king of the barbarians & appointed Triptolemus to till the land in Attica & where wines would not grow he taught to make drink of barley, & brought back with into Egypt the most pretious & richest things that every place did afford. All these things are the history of Sesostris & point out the time of his reign. For Lycurgus & Triptolemus lived but one or two generations before the expedition of the Argonauts, Lycurgus being contemporary[52] to Tharops the grandfather of Orpheus, & Triptolemus[53]to Persephone the wife of Aidoneus king of the Molossi in Epire whose daughter Proserpina Theseus & Perithous attempted to steale away. Dicæarchus[54]makes Osyrus two generations older then Sesonchosis other make him still older: but by his being contemporary to Lycurgus & Triptolemus he lived but two or three generations before the Trojan war, & so can be no other then Sesostris. For all agree that Sesostris was older then the Trojan war. Some make Io the sister of Phoroneus to be the Egyptian Isis; Others say that Iupiter begat Apis Serapis or Osiris of Niobe the daughter of Phoroneus; others that Apis was the brother of Niobe & the son of Phoroneus. Which fictions are very ancient & were founded upon the Synchronisms of Osiris & Isis with Io Niobe & her children & by consequence with David Solomon & Rehoboam or some of them.

Osiris[55] went through the world with very little use of arms using rather musick & verses by which he softened enticed perswaded & instructed the nations. For[56] he loved mirth & jollity & took great pleasure in music & dancing & carried along <12r> with him a train of Musicians of whom nine were virgins & excellent singers & skilled in the liberal sciences (whom the Greeks call Muses) over whom Apollo (who accompanied Osiris in this expedition) was captain, being thence called Μουσιγήτης; & the Satyrs, that is, men skilled in dancing or naturally inclined to skipping dancing & singing & other sorts of mirth were taken as part of his army under the command of Pan. These Satyrs seem to be Ethiopians: for[57] the Ethiopians enter battel with dancing & no Ethiopian emits a dart untill he hath danced & by dancing struck terror into his enemy. Pan was an Ethiopian God: for[58] the Gods of Meroe the Metropolis of Ethiopia were Hercules Pan Isis & Iupiter, besides their other kings & benefactors both publick & private.

Sesostris having derived the river Nile into all the lower Egypt by new canales, the Egyptians consecrated that river to him & worshipped him & the river together & called them both by the same names. So Homer calls that river Ægyptus & Manetho tells us that Sethosis was called Ægyptus. Also the river was called Sihor Siris & O-Siris, & the king was called Siris or Sirius & by the Greeks O-Siris. Afterwards from the word נהל Nahal, a Torrent, the River was called Nilus & then the River & the King were worshipped together by that name. For Diodorus tells us[59] that Nilus was that King who cut Egypt into canales to make the river more usefull. Cicero makes Nilus the father of Mercury Minerva Vulcan & Bacchus, but he was rather Bacchus himself.

For several nations worshipped Sesostris by several names. And as the Egyptians worshipped him by the name of Osiris, so the Arabians worshipped him by the name of Bacchus. For Bacchus is generally accounted one & the same God with Osiris. So Servius:[60]Liberum Orpheus a gigantibus dixit esse discerptum. Nam idem est Liber pater cum Osiride. And Herodotus:[61]Osyris in the Greek tongue is Dionysus that is Bacchus. And again: All the Egyptians do not worship the same <13r> Gods except Isis & Osiris whom they affirm to be Bacchus.And Diodorus:[62]Some of the ancient Greek Mythologists call Osiris Dionysus & sirname him Sirius, & particularly Eumolpus & Orpheus call him Dionysus. And again: The Egyptians interpret Osiris to be Bacchus & Isis Ceres. And again: The Egyptians say that Orpheus brought over most of the religious rites & ceremonies concerning the celebration of the Orgia & fable of Hell, for that the ceremonies & rites of Osiris agree in everything with those of Bacchus, & those of Isis & Ceres are the same, differing in nothing but the name. So also Plutarch tells us[63] that Bacchus is no other then Osiris. & that Anticlides saith that Isis was the daughter of Prometheus & wife of Bacchus, and that Ioy which is consecrated to Bacchus is by the Egyptians called Chenosiris which word signifies the plant of Osirid. τ[64] When the Arabians would express their admiration of any thing extraordinary they say Bacche, Bacche, that is Great, Great, whence came the name of Bacchus. And the name Dionysus is also Arabic signifying the God of the city Nysa: for the word Du & in the oblique case signifies[65]Lord in their language, as Dr Pocock has informed us. And thence probly came the words Διὸς, Θεὸς, Deus.

That Bacchus & Osiris are the same[66] appears further by the agreement of their history. For this Bacchus with his armies went through Egypt, Syria, Phrygia, Thrace, Persia, Bactria, Media, all Asia & all India on both sides Ganges, taught the nations the planting of vines & the use of wine, slew Lycurgus in Thrace, & leaving pillars there & in the eastern bounds of the Indies with inscriptions returned back to Thebes & built[67]that city. He overcame the nations of India in three years & the third year returning back to the regions neare Phasis[68] there celebrated the Orgia & choruses called Trietrica. In this expedition he made a bridge[69] over Euphrates at the city Zeugma where they kept a rope till the days of Pausanias, twisted of vine & ivy branches wherewith he tied the bridge. This Bacchus[70] & not the son of Semele was enterteined in Attica by Semachus in the reign of Amphictyon the son of Deucalion: & to him[71] was built a Temple in Attica with a vault in which were earthen statues of Amphictyon enterteining Bacchus & other Gods & of Pegasus who taught the worship of Bacchus in Attica by authority of the Delphic Oracle which had predicted his coming in the days of Icarius. <14r> For Bacchus whom they worshipped in Attica[72] was not the son of Semele but another Bacchus whom the Athenians reputed the son of Iupiter & Proserpina, & who was the first[73]that taught them how to plow with oxen when men before tilled the ground with own handy labours & invented many other things usefull in the art of husbandry, for which benefits, saith Diodorus, he was by all adored as a God with divine worship & solemn sacrifices. He brought vines from the red sea into Greece[74]& taught the Greeks to mingle wine with water. Being enterteined by Icarius & his daughter Erignona[75] he gave them a vessel of wine commanding that they should impart it to their neighbours. Icarius carried it in a cart to the shepherds of Attica, & they drinking till they were drunk took it for poison & slew Icarius whereupon Erigone hanged her self & the Athenians honoured them with an anniversary festival. Bacchus in his marches was accompanied with dancing[76]Satyrs commanded by Pan & with musick & the nine Muses & is by Lycophron called Δαὶμων ἠνόρχης the God of dancing, & in memory of these things & of the noisy marching of his furious weomen & of his returning out of India the third year of that war the Bacchinalia were instituted & celebrated every other year. For he had an army of weomen[77] adorned with garlands & flowers & armed with launces & darts with which on a sudden & unexpectedly they assaulted & slew the kings who were ignorant of the stratagem & despised them because they were weomen. Strabo lets us know[78] that most of the Greeks joyned Bacchus Apollo & the Muses & ascribed to them the Orgia & Choruses & sacred initiations & mysteries, calling Bacchus the Prince of the mysteries, that in Thrace which was conquered by Bacchus the Muses were originally celebrated, Pieria, Olympus, Pimpla & Lebethrum being places in Thrace, & Helicon being consecrated to the Muses by the Thracians of Bœotia, & the Europeans who first cultivated the ancient Music, as Orpheus, Musæus, Thamyris, Linus & Eumolpus being Thracians of Pieria, and that while all Asia as far as India was consecrated to Bacchus a great part of the ancient music was brought from Thence. The mountain Parnassus had two tops Citheron consecrated to Bacchus & Helicon to Apollo & the Muses. This Bacchus was powerful at sea & much improved navigation so that the Mediterranean from the time of his reign began to be frequented by merchants

When Bacchus[79] was come over the Hellespont with some part of his army, Lycurgus who was king of some part of Thrace slew them treacherously in the night, & Bacchus by the information of Tharops grandfather of Orpheus escaping brought over his whole army, slew Lycurgus & gave his kingdom to Tharops & one of the nine singsters he gave to Oeagrus the son of Tharops. For Orpheus was the son of Oeagrus & Calliope the chief of the Muses. And hence it came to pass that Orpheus became so skilful in musick dancing & poetry & in the Egyptian Theology & Sciences, being instructed by his mother & taught the Orgia & mysteries of Bacchus the benefactor of his family & spread them in Thrace under the colour of worshipping the son of Semele. And by the like occasion Linus became famous for music, being the son of another of the Muses, or as some say, the son of Apollo

Non me carminibus vincet nec Thracius Orpheus,

Nec Linus: huic mater quamvis et huic pater adsit

<16r>

Orphei Calliope, Lino formosus Apollo.

So then Bacchus Apollo & the Muses were but one generation older then Orpheus & Linus, & therefore Bacchus was contemporary to Osiris & Sesostris.

All three were Egyptians of the same age & reigned over Egypt. All three had great armies &great fleets & were the greatest conquerers that ever were & conquered the same regions subduing all Asia & India to Egypt. All three passed over the Hellespont into Thrace & were there in danger of losing their army. All three subdued Thrace & there put and end to their progress & returned back from thence into Egypt. All three left pillars with inscriptions in their conquests. And it is not likely that all these character can agree to more persons then one. Add that all three were the sons of Ammon. For the Greeks reccon Osiris & Bacchus to be the sons of Iupiter, & the Egyptian name of Iupiter is Ammon. And Thymætes who was contemporary to Orpheus & wrote a Poesy called Phrygia of the actions of Bacchus in very old language & character, saith expresly that the father of Bacchus was Ammon a king reigning over part of Libya, that is a king of Egypt reigning over all that part of Libya called Ammonia.

Thymætes saith further[80] that 200 of the soldiers of Bacchus were bred up with him, which is the character of Sesostris; that had in his army Libyans & Amazons who were both warriors & virgins & followed him for the sake of Minerva; that Minerva was born at the river Triton in Libya & minded the same course of life with the Amazons being a virgin all her life & that in the war against the Titans Bacchus commanded the men & Minerva the weomen. Diodorus places the Amazons in an Island called Hesperia[81] neare the Morass or Fen Tritonides, into which the river Triton runs. This great river parts the kingdoms of Tripoli & Tunis runs into the lesser Syrtis & is now called Capes. The country of the Gorgons was also there. Diodorus saith further[82]that when Myrina was Queen of the Amazons, she raised an army of 30000 foot & 2000 horse & conquered the neighbouring Atlantides & Gorgons with a great part of Afric, & passing into Ægypt made a league with Orus the son of Isis who then reigned there & then made war upon the Arabians & destroyed many of them, and afterwards subdued Syria & Cilicia, & having conquered the nations about mount Taurus, she descended through <17r> {the} greater Phrygia to the mediterranean & possest her self of several islands amongst which was Lesbos, but afterwards being attackt by the Thracians & Scythians under the conduct of Sipylus a Scythian & Mompsus a Thracian whom Lycurgus king of Thrace had banished, she was overcome in battel & slain with many of the Amazons, & the rest after some other foiles retired into Libya. By the progress of this army, & their being contemporary to Orus & Lycurgus, it's plain that these weomen were the Mænades who warred under Bacchus. When he was repulsed & returned from the war some of them he left upon the river Thermodon neare Colchos & others he carried back with him into Egypt whence they went into Libya. For Dionysius[83] speaking of the Amazons who were seated at Thermodon tells us that they dwelt originally in Libya & there reigned over the Atlantides a potent nation & invading their neighbours conquered as far as Europe & built many cities there. And Ammianus saith[84] that the ancient Amazons invading their neighbours were encouraged by the successes & breaking through many nations attact the Athenians & being there beaten in a sharp battel & their horse laid open on each side they received a great slaughter & the rest who staid at home seeking a safer & quieter seat retired to Thermodon. And Iustin tells us[85] that these Amazons had at first two Queens Marthesia & Lampeto who called themselves daughters of Mars & conquered part of Europe & some cities of Asia & having their built Ephesus & many other cities sent back part of their army to Thermodon with great booty; that Marthesia being afterwards slain was succeeded by her daughter Orithya & she by Penthesilea, that Theseus captivated & married Antiopa the sister of Orithya, Hercules made war upon the Amazons in the reign of Orithya & Penthesilea came to the Trojan war. Whence the first wars of the Amazons in Europe & Asia & their setling at Thermodon were but one generation before that war of Hercules & two before the Trojan war & so fell in with the wars of Bacchus, and therefore the Amazons were part of his army & Myrina their Queen who led them from the river Triton & commanded them in his wars, being slain in Europe as above, was succeeded by Marthesia in that part of them which stayed at Thermodon. Myrina was therefore the greatest warrior among weomen & therefore might be the Minerva of the ancients: <18r> for both were Queens of the Libyan Amazons warring under Bacchus king of Egypt, & even their names Myrina & Minerva differ so little that they might be the same originally.

When Bacchus came into Europe[86]he led his army to Argos & was beaten by the forces of Perseus the son of Danae who slew many of the Mænades. They had a common monument except one of them called Choria who being more honorable then the rest had a monument apart. And perhaps this was the famous victory of Perseus over the Gorgons. Cicero naming several Minervas tells us[87]that one of them was called Coria by the Arcadians. And if the name of Minerva was given to a subordinate commander of the Amazons, much more was it given to their soverain Queen. After this war was composed they[88]paid great honour to Bacchus & built a temple to him at Argos, which was afterwards called the Cretian temple because he buried Ariadne there.[89] For his forces at sea taking many Islands of the Cyclades, in one of them called Dia or Naxus they found Ariadne & he loved her exceedingly & had children by her. Whence that Island became sacred to Bacchus. When he returned into Egypt he seems to have required the honour done him at Argos by building a temple to Perseus. For in Thebais[90]there was a temple built to Perseus with the statue of Perseus in it.

Diodorus tells us[91] that when Osiris undertook his expedition through the world he left the government of Egypt to Isis his wife & joyned with her Mercury his sacred Scribe or Secretary as chief Councellour of state. Hercules his neare kinsman a man of a strong body & great courage he left General of all his forces, & the government of his territories neare Phœnicea & on the sea coasts of Egypt he committed to Busiris, & that of Ethiopia & Libya to Anitæus.This is the Libyan or western Ethiopia lying above Libya, the Arabic or eastern Ethiopia called Chus being subject to Thebais & by consequence under Hercules. Sometimes Hercules is taken for Osiris himself, as where they call him the companion of the Muses and Musagetes[92], worship him & the Muses upon the same altar extend his conquests eastward to India & westward to the straits mouth[93], celebrate his pillars erected in both places & his statues erected in a triumphal habit[94], & say he was slain by Typhon[95], & make him the same God with Mars the God of war, calling the star of Mars the star of Hercules.[96] But Diodorus here takes Hercules for the General of the forces of Osiris in Thebais & Ethiopia above Thebais, Busiris reigning in the/ lower Egypt & Antæus in Libya & the regions adjoyning. This is that Hercules who assisted the Gods of Egypt against Typhon & whom Clearchus calls the Hercules of Briareus.[97]

Antæus who reigned in Libya had his royal seal at Hirassa or Irasa[98], a city of Pentapolis neare the haven <19r> Apollonia. For Pindar[99] tells us that Hirassa was the city of Antæus. There Battus afterwards built the city Cyrene the metropolis of the Province. In all the sea coasts of Egypt from Ioppa in Palestine to Parætonium in Libya for the space of about 600 miles there was not one safe harbour except Pharus, but from Parætonium along the sea coasts of Marmarica & Cyrene were several good ones. And therefore the Egyptians before the conquest of Libya could not be potent at sea for want of Ports. But upon the conquest of Lybia meeting there with convenient Ports & plenty of timber, they set out a potent fleet of long & tall ships: & this region being at that time under the government of Antæus, he had the care of this matter & therefor was the Neptune of the ancients. For Herodotus[100] tells us that Neptune was first worshipped in Africa & that his worship was propagated from thence into other countries; & therefore he reigned in Africa. And the Cretans affirmed[101]that Neptune was the first who set out a fleet, having obteined this Prefecture of Saturn, whence posterity recconed things done in the sea to be under his government, & mariners honoured him with sacrifices. By Saturn I understand here the father of Iupiter Belus Neptune & Pluto & shall presently shew that Iupiter Belus was Sesostris. For Osiris is sometimes called the son of Saturn.[102] Whence it follows that Neptune was the brother of Osiris & by consequence the Typhon of the Egyptians, & therefore Ammon their father was the first king of Egypt who set out a fleet in the Mediterranean. For Typhon was the husband of Nephtys[103] & was interpreted by the Egyptians to signify the sea, and the Priest of Egypt abominated the sea[104] & had Neptune in no honour. They said[105] that Osiris signified the Nile which in overflowing copulated with the land of Egypt signified by Isis, & in running into the sea & being dissipated therein perished by Typhon. And in telling the story of the war between the God of Egypt & the Giants they sometimes put Neptune for Typhon, as where Lucian saith[106] that Corinth being full of fables tells the fight of Sol & Neptune & where Agatharcides relates[107] how the Gods of Egypt fled from the Giants till the Titans came in & saved them by putting Neptune to flight. The outmost parts of the earth & promontories & whatsoever borders upon the Sea, the Egyptians call Neptys.[108] And on the coasts of Marmorica & Cyrene Bochart & Arius Montanus place the Naphtuim, a people sprung from Misraim Gen. 10.13. And therefore Neptune & his wife Nephtys are also to be placed there the words Neptune, Nephtys & Naphtuim signifying in the language of the Egyptians the king & queen & people of the sea coasts. In the reign of Laomedon king of Troy <20r> Neptune & Orus assisted in building the walls of that city that is, in fortifying it for Sesostris. Glaucus the son of Neptune took Ariadne from Theseus in the island Dia[109]& lay with her. Others of his sons, as Euphemus, Erginus, Nauplius & Ancæus, were in the Argonautic expedition, & his son Atlas was contemporary to the Argonauts, being the father of Calypso who flourished in the time of the Trojan war, & after that war conversed with Vlysses. Neptune therefore being two generations older then the warriors at Troy & one generation older then the Argonauts, was contemporary to Sesostris & therefore was his Admiral, & he & Antæus reigned at once over the kingdom of Libya & so are one & the same king, & his son Atlas was his successor in the kingdom. For the gardens of the Hesperides were in the kingdom of Atlas & are placed by Ptolomy Pliny & Strabo neare Cyrene. And Atlas inherited the skill of Neptune in sea affairs & had a potent fleet in the Mediterranean. For Homer saith of him[110] Θαλάσσης πάσης βέντεα οἶδεν He knows the depths of all the sea, and others[111] that Phorcys who reigned over Sardinia & Corsica was overcome by Atlas in a sea fight & drowned, & Clemens Alexandrinus[112]that Atlas was the first who built a ship & sailed upon the seas, that is, in the reign & by the direction of his father Neptune. And in the war between the Gods of Egypt & the Titans, Atlas was captain of the Titans[113] & in the end of the war had the heavens placed upon his sholders, that is, he assisted his father Typhon or Neptune in that war, & succeeded him in the kingdom of Afric. For the ancients represented a kingdom by the world putting the Sun Moon & stars for the king people & great men of the kingdom.

The country of Cyrene was famous for the breed & management of good horses. And from the great military force with which Libya supplied Egypt in the reign of Ammon & Sesak for invading the nations[114], Neptune Pallas & the Amazons were called equestres.[115] And Pamphus who is reputed the author of the oldest Hymns amongst the Athenians, called Neptune

Ἴππωντε δοτῆρα, νεῶν τ' ἰθυκρηδέμων

The author of horses & of tall ships with sails.

Pliny[116] tells us that ships of war where first rigged out by Ægæon, & others make Ægæon the son in law of Neptune. Whence we may conclude that he assisted Neptune in sea-affairs.

< insertion from f 19v >

✝Iapetus was the brother of Hyperion[117] that is of Sesostris, & the father of Atlas, & therefore one & the same man with Neptune; as Bochart hath also proved[118], shewing that Iapetus & Neptune are words of the same signification & original. But Bochart erroneously takes this Iapetus to be Iaphet the son of Noah. Sesostris therefore was the Vnkle & Neptune the father of Prometheus Epimetheus & Menæcius the brothers of Atlas. For Prometheus[119] was the grandson of Oceanus & son of Clymene Oceanine & being very ingenious invented many things & particularly ships with sails; & therefore he was skilled in sea affairs & assisted Neptune in inventing such ships & setting forth a fleet of them. Cælus & Tellus or Vranus & Titæa that is Ammon & Rhea had many children called Titans for their mothers name Titea which in the Phœnician language signifies mud or earth.[120] Amongst these children were Hyperion & Thea or Osiris & Isis the parents of Apollo & Diana, Cæus & Phœbe the parents of Latona, Oceanus & Tethys the parents of Clymene, Iapetus or Neptune the father of Atlas & Prometheus by Clymene, Briareus who married Cymopolea the daughter of Neptune, & Perseis the mother of Ætes & Circe.

< text from f 20r resumes >

✝Iapetus was the brother of Hyperion &cWhen the Egyptians applied themselves to navigation that they might leave the sea coasts by which men had hitherto sailed, & guide themselves in the middle of the seas by the sun moon & stars, their Kings & Princes, & chiefly their commanders at sea, applyed themselves to the observation of the heavens & study of Astronomy. Atlas was eminent for his skill in science.[121] Typhon observed the course of the <21r> Moon which was the hardest part of Astronomy. Bacchus was instructed in Libya by Aristæus in the reign of Ammon & Aristæus brought Astronomy into Greece & there married the daughter of Cadmus. The Atlantides[122] a people of Libya neare the lesser Syrtes say that Vranus was their first king who reduced them from a salvage course of life & taught them to live in towns & cities & that he reigned over a great part of the world & measured the year by the course of the Sun & the Months by the course of the Moon & divided the day into hours & was familiarly acquainted with the rising & setting of the stars & after death for his merits & skill in Astronomy was honoured as a God. They say also that he married his sister Titæa or Terra & by her had many children called Titans, two of which called Hyperion & Basilea were the parents of Helio & Selene, & that the Titans asassinated Hyperion & drowned Helio in Eridanus (not in the Po but in the river Nile where the Gods contended[123] & thereupon Selene threw her self from a house top & her mother Basilea went distracted & disappeared, & all of them were deified. By which circumstances it is manifest Cælus, Hyperion, Basilea, Helio & Selene were Ammon Osiris Isis, Orus & Bubaste, Ammon being deified by the name of Vranus or Iupiter Vranius. And the Cretans reported[124]that Hyperion the son of Cælus was the first that by his own industry found out the motions of the Sun Moon & other stars & the seasons & distinctions of time measured out by them, that is, he assisted his father in these matters for advancing navigation. And hence it appears that he was the Iupiter Belus of the Chaldæans. For Cicero[125] tells us that Belus was the Indian Hercules & Pausanius[126]that Iupiter Belus in Babylon had his name from Belusan Egyptian the son of Libya who built the Temple in Babylon. And [127] Pliny[128]Durat ibi (Babylone) Iovis Beli templum: inventor hic fuit sideralis scientiæ. And Diodorus[129]: The Egyptians report that many colonies out of Egypt were dispersed over all parts of the world (videlicet by the wars of Sesostris) & that Belus the son of Neptune & Libya (so called from his valour & the place of his education) led a colony into the Province of Babylon, & fixing his seat at the river Euphrates, consecrated Priests, & according to the custome of the Egyptians freed them from all publick taxes & impositions. These Priests the Babylonians call Chaldæans who observe the motions of the stars in imitation of the Priests Naturalists & Astrologers of Egypt. And again[130]: The Egyptians affirm that the Chaldeans in Babylon are Egyptian colonies, & their Astrologers have attained to that degree of reputation by the knowledge they have learnt of the Egyptian Priests. Cheræus wrote that there was <22r> wine in Babylon which the inhabitant called Nectar[131], & thence it appears that Bacchus & his companions were at Babylon, this wine being the drink of the Gods.

When Ammon conquered Libya they fought with clubs. So Hyginus[132]: Afri et Ægyptij primum fustibus dimicaverunt, postea, Belus Neptuni filius gladio belligeratus est, unde bellum dictum. This that Iupiter who is painted with a thunderbolt in his hand to express his being a great warrior & rides upon an eagle to signify his soaring high in dominion. In Europe, Cadmus was the first who exercised mining. He found out copper & from him the copper stone has been ever called Cadmia. The the Idæi Dactyli found out iron in Crete in the reign of Minos & by the use of iron tools Minos was enabled to prepare a fleet by which he gained the dominion of the seas But weapons of war were first made of brass & continued to be made of brass till after the Argonautic expedition, iron being scarce. The islands Cyclades were at first uninhabited but Minos & his brother Rhadamanthus peopled several of them[133] peopled several of them, & Rhadamanthus giving to each of his captains some island or city placed on Thoas in Lemnos, & Thoas bought & married Calycopis the daughter of Otreus king of Phrygia paying a dowry for her to her father..[134]And when Sesostris, the great Mars of the ancients, invaded the Greek islands by his fleet & became Lord of Lemnos, Thoas having lost his dominion & being lame exercised himself in the Smiths trade & made armour for the conqueror in a city of Lemnos thence called Hephæstia, & so became the Vulcan of the ancients. But at length taking Mars in bed with his wife[135] in Phrygia, he composed the matter so as to obtain the government of Cyprus & Byblus. Then Mars went presently with violence (that is with his army) over the Hellespont into Thrace, & Calycopis sailed in rich apparell by Cythara to Cyprus & landed at Paphus where she was washed & adorned by her weomen called the Graces & lived splendidly in costly apparell adorned with gold being Queen of the place. And there Vulcan married also Aglaia the youngest of the graces.[136] These things the ancients have signified by feigning that Vulcan was thrown down from heaven into Lemnos[137] & being lamed with the fall exercised the smith trade, took Mars in bed with his wife & was made drunk & reduced back into heaven by Bacchus.

Thoas for his skill upon the harp was called Cinyras. For Cinyras lived with Venus in Cyprus[138] & was an inventor of Arts, & found out tiles, & copper in Cyprus, & the hammer & anvil & tongues & laver & imployed workmen in making armour & other things. <23r> For when the Greeks where preparing for the war against Troy he sent Agamemnon a breastplate.[139]By his arts he became very rich[140], even so rich as to occasion the proverb: Richer then Mydas or Cinyras. He lived very long, Pliny said 140 years[141], was famous, & entirely beloved of Apollo[142], & as an Artist in music contended with Apollo on the Harp[143]: & therefore he flourished from the time that Apollo & Osiris invaded the nations till the times of the Trojan war. And after the death of his wife he deified her with lustfull Orgia[144] whereby she became the Cyprian Venus.[145] And at Paphos a city which he built in Cyprus, he built a Temple to her & became himself her chief Priest or Pontifex maximus [146], & thence this Venus was called Paphia & her Priests were called Cinyradæ[147] because they were of the posterity of Cinyras, & in this Temple Cinyras & his posterity were buried.[148] This Temple was taken[149] from an older Temple of Venus Vrania or Asteroth the old Godess of the Philistims at Ascalon as was also that at Cythara. This is that Venus born of the froth of the sea. Fama tradit a Cinyra consecratum vetustissimum Paphiæ Veneris templum deamque ipsam conceptam mari huc appulsam. Tacit. Hist. 2. p. 338.This Venus before she went to Cyprus lay with Anchises on mount Ida, & at Cyprus she lived in adultery with Gingris the son of Cinyras & when Cinyras deified his Venus he deified also his son by the name of Adonis building Temples to Venus & Adonis[150] at Amathus in Cyprus & at Byblus in Phœnicia & instituting their worship with Orgia & lamentations for the death of Adonis much after the manner that Osiris was worshipped in Egypt. Or rather, he instituted the worship of his great benefactor Osiris under the name of Adonis, & the Cyprians applied the name & worship to his son. For the word Adonis signifies The Lord & so agrees much better to Osiris then to Gingris, & Lucian[151] tells us that he saw at Byblus a great Temple of Venus Byblia in which they perform certain rites to Adonis after the manner of the worship of Apis in Egypt <24r> lamenting his death & shaving themselves at his resurrection, & some of Byblus say that Osiris was burned there & that this mourning was performed not to Adonis but to Osiris, & confirm it with this circumstance that the head of Osiris was yearly brought out of Egypt to Byblus by sea being made of Egyptian papyr. Lucian adds that he went a days journey from Byblus up mount Libanus & there saw another old Temple of Venus which Cinyras had dedicated. Cinyras therefor set on foot her worship as well in Syria as in Cyprus & thence it came to pass that she was worshipped principally in those two places & called Dea Syria as well as Dea Cypria. And from Temples erected to her in several places she was also called Cytharea, Amathusia, Byblia, Salaminia, Gnydia, Erycina, Idalia.

Cinyras lay with his own daughter Smyrna & of her begat Adonis, & the same story is reported of Thoas or Theias[152] He left Hypsipyla another one of his daughter in Lemnos & gave her a purple cloak which he had received of Bacchus[153]; & when the weomen of Lemnos slew their husbands, she became Queen of the island & enterteined the Argonauts. He was so much favoured by Bacchus as to be reputed his son by Ariadne. Antonius Liberalis saith[154] that Theias the father of Smyrna was the son of Belus, & Apollonius[155] that Thoas the father Hypsipyla was the son of Bacchus, & Panyasis[156] that Thoas the father of Smyrna was king of the Assyrians & Hyginus[157] that Cinyras the father of Smyrna was king of the Assyrians. So that Theias the father of Smyrna, Thoas the father of Hypsipyla, Thoas the father of Smyrna & Cinyras the father of Smyrna were one and the same man. ✝ < insertion from f 23v > ✝ This is that Thoas of whom Pliny saith: Argentum invenit Erecthonius Atheniensis, ut alij Æacus; auri metalla et conflaturam Cadmus Phœnix ad Pangæum montem, ut alij Thoas aut Æacus. Plin. l. 7. c. 56. < text from f 24r resumes > . By his being placed in Lemnos by Rhadamanthus he seems to have been a Cretan & by his working in metalls its probable that he & his workmen were some of the Curetes. For the sacred rites Lemnos were of the same kind with those by the Curetes in Samothrace & other places because the ministers were the same, acting with a sacred fury & dancing in armour with drumms & pipes & clamour at the sacrifices.[158] He was greatly honoured in Cyprus: for Pindar [159] tells us that the discourses of the inhabitants of Cyprus resounded about Cinyras whom Apollo (that is Orus the son of Osiris) loved extreamly, & who was the chief Priest of Venus as a Ram is the captain of the flock, & that they were impelled thus to celebrate him out of gratitude for the benefits they had received of him.

So then the great Gods of Egypt, videlicet Ammon, Osiris, Isis, Typhon, Apollo, Diana, Mercury, Latona, Minerva, Pan, Hercules, Venus, Vulcan, Bacchus, Neptune &c were the Princes of Egypt in the reign of Ammon & Sesostris when the Monarchy of Egypt was erected & in its ἀκμη The it came in Greece & other nations to which the arms of Egypt extended, κτερίστειν, parentare, to celebrate the funerals of their dead fathers with festivals & invocations & sacrifices <25r> offered to their ghosts & to erect magnificent sepulchres in the form of Temples with Altars & statues to persons of renown & there to honour them with sacrifices & invocations. Every man might do it to his Ancestors & the Greeks did it to all the eminent Greecians, as to Hercules the son of Alcmena, Bacchus the son of Semele, Pan the son of Penelope, Æsculapius the son of Apollo, Machaon the son of Æsculapius, Palemocrates the son of Machaon, Theseus king of Athens, Hippolytus the son of Theseus, Ino the daughter of Cadmus, Melicerta the son of Ino, Amphiaraus & his son Amphilochus, Hector & Alexandra the son & daughter of Priam, Phoroneus, Orpheus, Trophonius, Protesilaus, Achilles & his mother, Ajax, Agamemnon, Menelaus, Castor, Pollux, Helena, Arcas, Persèus, Pandion, Minos, Rhadamanthus, Idomeneus, Merion, Æacus, Iasion, Cybele, Ceres, Proserpina, Triptolemus, Celeus, Melampus, Britomartis, Adrastus, Iolaus, Aristæus & divers others. They deified their dead in various manners according to their circumstances & abilities & merits of the persons, some only in private families as houshold Gods or Dij Penates, others by erecting Altars or Grave-stones to them in publick for annual sacrifices, others by building also to them sepulchres in the form of houses or temples & some by appointing also mysteries & ceremonies & set sacrifices & festivals & initiations & a succession of Priests for observing & performing those institutions in the Temples & handing them down to all posterity. Altars might begin to be erected before the days of Cadmus, but Temples began a little after. For Æacus the son of Ægina who was two generations older then the Trojan war was one of the first, some say the first, who built a Temple in Græce.[160] The custome of deifying men founded upon the doctrine of Dæmons or transmigration of souls, the Greeks & Asiaticks had from the Egyptians, & therefore formed the first images of the Gods in the shape of Egyptian Mummies. But Idolatry began in Egypt & Assyria & spread thence into the neighbouring countries long before it came into Europe. For the countries upon the Nile & Tigris being exceeding fertile were first frequented by mankind & grew first into kingdoms & therefore first began to adore their kings. But every kingdom worshipped only its own kings untill they conquered one another, & Sesostris by conquest spread the worship of the Gods of Egypt into all his conquests & made them more famous & universal <26r> then the Gods of any other nation had been before so as to be called Dij magni maijorum Gentium. These were the Gods who built the cities of Egypt: for Sesotris built them upon new foundations raised higher then the former as you heard above. He built them by the hands of his Princes, & Diodorus[161] tells us that of all the Provinces of the world there were in Egypt alone many cities built by ancient Gods as by Iupiter, Sol, Hermes, Apollo, Pan Eilithyia & many others. These were the Dij Consentes, the Gods who sat together in Council & feasted together, the Gods to whom Vulcan shewed Mars & Venus, the twelve Gods to whom Deucalion erected an altar in Thessaly, the Gods who upon the death of Osiris fled from Typhon & therefore lived together with Osiris & were the great men of his kingdom. These were Ilus & his companions whom the Phenicians called Eloim, as Sanchoniatho affirms, who describes Orus to be the son, Atlas the brother, Venus the concubine & Mercury Trismegist the secretary of Ilus, & that Ilus went over the whole world & gave the kingdom of Attica to Minerva. Lucian[162] an Assyrian accounted the Temples of Egypt very old those in Phœnicia built by Cinyras as old, & those in Assyria almost as old as the former but not altogether so old. Which shews that the Monarchy of Assyria rose up after the Monarchy of Egypt & that the Monarchy of Egypt rose up when the Temples of Phenicia & Cyprus were built by Cinyras Hiram Adad & Philistims. For the building of the temples was occasioned by the rise & growth of the kingdoms of Cinyras Hiram & the Philistims & of the Monarchies of Damascus Egypt & Assyria.

In three of the Dynasties of Manetho Sesostris is said to have reigned 48 years. During his reign there were great vexations upon all the inhabitants of the countries & nation was destroyed of nation & city of city for God did vex them with all adversity.[163] But in the reign of Asa king of Iudah the land was quiet ten years untill Zerah the Ethiopian came against it.[164] And in those ten years Asa sought the Lord & built & fortified the cities of Iudah & prepared an army of five hundred & eighty thousand men with which in the 15th year of his reign he met & fought <27r> Zerah. 2 Chron. XIV.1, 6, 8, 9 & XV.5, 6, 10. The lands were therefore vexed till the fift year of Asa, & then began to revolt, that is at the death of Sesostris. For Herodotus tells us that Sesostris was the only king that enjoyed the Empire. Vpon his death Egypt fell into civil wars as shall be presently explained, & these wars set Asa at liberty to revolt & fortify the cities of Iudah. Sesostris therefore began his reign in the 17th year of Solomon & warred till the 14th or 15th year of Rehoboam, & then returned from his wars into Egypt & reigned there till the fift year of Asa which was ten or eleven year more, in which time he imployed the conquered nations in building the cities & temples of Egypt & doing other great works

He was slain in autumn being murdered, saith Diodorus,[165]by his wicked brother Typhon who mangled his body intomany pieces & gave to each of his confederates in the treason a piece, by that means to bring them all within the same guilt, & thereby the more to engage them to advance him to the throne & to defend & preserve him in the possession. Then Typhon invaded Egypt with an army from Libya, & the Princes of Egypt fled & by the advice of Minerva (for so they still called the Queen of the Amazons) sent for Hercules from the parts above Egypt, & he coming with his army to their assistance a civil war ensued. This is that famous war between the Gods of Egypt & the Giants so much celebrated by the Poets in which the Gods were feigned to fly from Typhon & hide themselves in various shapes till Hercules came to their assistance & the Giants were feigned to have many heads & hands to signify that they were not single persons but bodies politique, captains of Typhons army each with the forces under his command, not men of a gigantic stature but great in power & in the number of their forces.

In this war Orus & Hercules with the other Gods fought & overcame Typhon at a village of the upper Egypt called Antæa from Typhons name Antæus & took him prisoner[166]And to this action Ovid relates when he makes Hercules say,

– – – sævoque alimenta parentis

Antæo eripui.

This was the victory of Apollo over Python so much celebrated by the Poets. And now Isis & Orus took upon them the government of Egypt, but Isis afterwards let go Typhon whereupon followed another battel or two in which Hercules was taken prisoner. But after 13 months he was set at liberty by Mercury, the wife of Typhon shewing him where Hercules was in fetters. And then Mercury interceding composed the war, & in memory thereof is painted with an embassadors rod writhen about with two serpents which signify the two contending nations reconciled by his embassy. <28r> By the composition the several parties retained their proper governments, Orus & Isis the government of Egypt, Hercules his government above Egypt, & Typhon or his son & successor Atlas the government of Libya & other Princes other governments. And from this war the Greeks called the Nile Eridanus, the river of contention.

Orus the son & successor of Osiris is by Diodorus called Sesostris the second, by Pliny Nuncoreus (a name perhaps compounded of Orus) & by Herodotus Phero, that is Pharaoh, the common name of the kings of Egypt. He placed in Heliopolis two Obelisks each an hundred cubits long & eight broad one of which was carried to Rome by Caius.[167] He is said to have fallen blind & recovered his sight by such miracles as make that part of his story look fabulous. He made no wars abroad and seems to have reigned but a short time, being drowned in the Nile by the Titans & found dead in the water.[168] Whence came the fable of Phaeton the son of the Sun, a title which denotes him king of Egypt. In his reign Isis & Mercury made laws for Egypt, & as Diodorus[169]tells us, celebrated the funerals of Osiris with sacrifices & divine honours as to one of the Gods, & instituted many sacred rites & mystical ceremonies in memory of the mighty works wrought by this Hero now deified.

The Titans who drowned Orus seem to be Hercules & his associates who after they had rescued Egypt from the invasion of Typhon & returned into their own seats, after a while returned & invaded the kingdom of Egypt. For Pliny[170] tells us, Ægyptiorum bellis attrita est Æthiopia, vicissim imperitando serviendoque clara et potens etiam usque ad Trojana bella Memnone regnante. Æthiopia served Egypt in the reign of Sesostris & no longer. For Herodotus[171] tells us that he alone enjoyed the Empire of Ethiopia; & within ten years after his death the Ethiopians were Lords of Egypt & Libya. For in the 15th year of Asa king of Iudah[172], Zerak the Ethiopian with an army of a thousand thousand Ethiopians & Libyans invaded Iudea. The way of the Libyans was through Egypt & therefore Zerah was lord of Egypt. Before this invasion, Asa had peace ten years & in all that time prepared against a storm. For while the land was yet before him he sought the Lord & destroyed idolatry & fortified the cities of Iudah with walls & towers & gates & barrs & prepared an army of five hundred & eighty thousand men. This he did without any cheque from the Egyptians they having work enough at home. At length when Zerah with an army of Ethiopians & Libyans advanced from Egypt, Asa met them with his army & routed them totally at Maresah a town of Iudea towards Egypt & pursued them to Gerar & smote the cities about Gerar, & as he returned with much spoile, Azariah the Prophet went out to meet him & said: Hear ye me Asa & Iudah & Benjamin; The Lord is with you while ye be <29r> with him, but if ye forsake him he will forsake you. Now for a long season Israel hath been without the true God & without a teaching Priest & without the Law. And in those times [videlicet under the dominion of Egypt untill the death of Sesostris] there was no peace to him that went out nor to him that came in, but great vexations were upon all the inhabitants of those countries, & nation was destroyed of nation, & city of city: for God did vex them with all adversity. But when Israel in their trouble did turn unto the Lord & sought him he was found of them. 2 Chron. XV.

By this victory of Asa the Iews shook off the dominion of Egypt. For whereas Sesak had taken away all the treasures of the Temple[173], Asa now brought into the Temple the silver & gold & vessels which he & his father had dedicated in the room of what Sesak had taken away, & renewed the Altar, assembling all the people in the third month to a sacrifice of the spoiles, they entred into a covenant upon oath to seek Lord & that whoever would not seek the Lord should be put to death. And henceforward Asa & his son Iehoshaphat flourished in power & wealth for many years & Egypt continued in troubles. And as the Machabees after the persecution of Antiochus Epiphanes, & Ezra after the Babylonian captivity, collected the sacred writings for the use of the people, so the Prophets in the days of Asa seem to have done the like. For Iehosaphat in the third year of his reign sent Princes & Priests & Levites to teach in the cities of Iudah, & they had the book of the Law with them & went throughout the cities of Iudah & taught the people. By the book of the law I understand all the Pentateuch in the form that we now have it, the copy thereof found in the Temple in Iosiahs' reign being ever since followed.

Vpon this victory of Asa the Egyptians fell into great troubles & their Empire flew in pieces. For the people of the lower Egypt revolted from the Ethiopians[174]calling in to their assistance 200000 Iews & Phœnicians, & the Greeks sent the Argonauts to the nations upon the Euxin & Mediterranean seas to sollicit them to revolt, & Prometheus with his people after 30 years stay at mount Caucasus to guard the Egyptian empire against the Scythians was released, and the Philistims whom Sesostris had carried into captivity & placed in Caphtor or Cappadocia were set at liberty to return home, & did so according to the Prophet. Have not I brought up Israel out of the land of Egypt & the Philistims from Caphtor. Amos IX.7. And thus ended the great Empire of the Egyptians seated at Thebes.

<30r>

This Empire may be distinguished into four ages according to the reigns of the Kings Thomosis, Ammon, Osiris & Orus. For these were the ages of the great Gods of Egypt, & seem to be the four ages of those Gods in imitation of which the Greeks formed the four ages of their Gods. Certainly Ammon was the Iupiter of the Egyptians & therefore his father was their Saturn And the ages of Saturn Iupiter & the sons of Iupiter were the golden the silver & the brazen ages. The Ancients represented people by water, kingdoms by rivers & invasions by floods, & after the invasion of the lower Egypt & the rise of a new world politique by the conquest of that country, the reign of Thomosis might be peaceable, that of Ammon was splendid & victorious, that of Osiris was warlike victorious & turbulent, & that of Orus an iron age to the Egyptians by reason of their civil wars. The Saturn of the Egyptians had two faces because he had two kingdoms an old one & a new. For two or more faces of a man or beast denote two or more dominions. He was painted with a sithe in memory of his conquering the lower Egypt an exceeding fertile corn country. And their Iupiter had Ram's horns in memory of his conquering Libya a country abounding with sheep. Mars being the son of Iupiter reigned in the brazen age, & Osiris was the greatest warrior of all the kings of Egypt. The fourth & last age of the Gods of Egypt was the reign of Orus & his reign was the worst. Vpon his death his sister Diana slew her self & his mother Isis vanished

Vltima cælestum terras Astræa reliquit.

Then reigned Menes & he is generally reputed the first king of Egypt who reigned after the Gods.

In the time of this Empire of the Gods of Egypt, the Oracles of the heathens had their rise. The oldest Oracle in history was that in the royal city of Thebes, the next was erected in Libya, the third at Dodona in Greece: all three of Iupiter. Herodotus[175] was told by the Priests of the Theban Iupiter that two weomen Priestesses were carried from thence, the one into Libya the other into Greece & erected the first Oracles in those countries. These were the Oracles of Iupiter Ammon & Iupiter Dodonæus. He was told also by the chief Priestesses of Dodona that two black Doves flew from the Egyptian Thebes the one to them which sitting upon a beach tree spake with a humane voice that an Oracle should be erected there to Iupiter, & the other to the Libyans which commanded them to erect an Oracle to Iupiter Ammon. <31r> Doves in the ancient fables of the Greeks are put for Priestesses, as Bochart, Marsham & Potter have shewed.[176] And, saith Herodotus[177], the Oracle at Dodona is the oldest in Greece & is very like that at the Egyptian Thebes, & the way of divining in Temples came from Egypt. Oracles were set up by Politicians for giving divinity to dead men & laws to the living. Zaleucus pretended to receive his laws from the Goddess Vesta, Nuna his from the Goddess Egeria, Minos his from the Cretan Iupiter, Lycurgus backt his[178]by the authority of the Delphic Oracle. When Acrisius erected the Amphictyonic Council & a Temple was built at Delphos for them to meet in, the Temple was furnished with an Oracle not for governing the Council but for influencing the people & for bringing wealth to the Temple & credit to the God. And the same is to be understood of all the Oracles in temples built by publick authority, such as were the temple of Iupiter Ammon in Libya, built by Dariaus in the reign of his brother Sesostris or by Sesostris himself & as many of the temples of the Nomes or Provinces of Egypt as had Oracles in them. For Sesostris divided Egypt into 36 Nomes & built a temple for every Nome or Church & all these Temples had their Councils of Senators or Elders who met at set times of the year to consult of & regulate the affairs of the Nome & Temple; the people of the Nome also coming together to sacrifice & feast & buy & sell. For the several Nomes had their several Gods & several ways of worshipping their Gods & these Gods had their Oracles some of which continued in vogue till the days of Herodotus, as the Oracles of Hercules & Apollo in their cities, that of Minerva in the city Sais, that of Diana in the city Bubastis, that of Mars in the city Pampremis, that of Iupiter in Thebes & those of Apis & Serapis in their temples; but of all the Oracles that of Latona in the city Buti remained most in repute. And these Oracles were not all alike, but delivered themselves in different manners. And indeed I do not see how Sesostris could have set up so many Gods & so many religions in Egypt as there were Nomes & Temples, if he had not furnished the temple of every Nome with an Oracle in the beginning.

And after the example of Egypt the worship of dead men was set up almost at the same time in Greece two Priestesses being sent at one & the same time from the temple of the Theban Iupiter, the one to set up the Oracle of Iupiter Ammon in Libya & the other to set up the Oracle of Iupiter at Dodona For this being For after the example of this Oracle many others were quickly set up in all Greecea[179], as the Oracle of Apollo in the Temple of Delphos, that of Iupiter Olympius in the temple at Olympia near Elis[180], that of Apollo in a temple of the island Delos[181], that of Iupiter Trophonius in a cave[182], that of Apollo Branchides in a temple at Didyma built by the Milesians[183] & frequented by all the Ionians & Æolians[184], that of Apollo in a temple at Larissa a fort of the Argives[185], that of Apollo in a temple at Abæ in Phocis[186], that of Ceres in a temple at Patræ a city of Laconia[187], that of Pasiphaæ in a temple at Thalamiæ a city of Laconia[188], that of Ino the daughter of Cadmus[189] in a temple built in the way between Thalamiæ & <32r> Oetylus in Laconia, that of Amphiaraus one of the seven captains who warred against Thebes, that of Mercury at Pharæ a city of Archaia, that of the Muses at Træzen a city of Peloponnesus set up by Ardalus the son of Vulcan from whence they were called Ardalides, that of Hercules at Bura in Archaia that of Æsculapius at Epidaurus, that of Bacchus at Amphiclea, that of Apollo at Pharos set up by Manto the daughter of Tiresias in the time of the second Theban war called the war of the Epigoni. These & several others were set up in the ages which ended with the Trojan war & some of them continued in vogue till the times of the Roman Empire & then grew silent for want of encouragement to speak, the Romans not minding them.

Herodotus[190] tells us that before the Greeks began to set up Oracles they had no variety of names for various Gods but called them only by the general name of Gods, & that by the dictates of the Oracle of Dodona the Pelasgians first received the names of the Gods of Egypt & propagated them into all Greece. In those days Deucalion instituted the worship of the twelve Gods: & soon after by the dictates of the Delphic Oracle & prophesying of Pegasus, Melampus & Orpheus the Greeks received the worship of Bacchus.[191] But under those names the Greeks worshipped their own dead men, it being usual to consecrate the dead by new names for promoting their worship; as by giving the name of Iupiter to Minos Trophonius Agamemnon & other kings, that of Hercules to Alcæus the son of Alcmena, that of Bacchus to the son of Semele, that of Neptune to Erechtheus & Æolus, that of Pan to the son of Penelope, that of Mars to the father of Alcippa, that of Leucothea to Ino the daughter of Cadmus, that of Palæmon to her son Melicertes, that of Mercury to the son of Maia, that of Thetis to the mother of Achilles, those of the Muses to the daughters of Pierus, those of the Graces to weomen attending on Venus. And by honouring great men after death with glorious new names, & with Hymns composed in their praise & with altars & temples & priests & sacrifices, & Oracles to make the nations beleive that the dead were still alive & knew things present & to come & governed humane affairs, the Gods of Greece increased so fast that Hesiod who lived in the age next after the Trojan war wrote that there were then thirty thousand Gods of Greece.[192] Most of these were soon forgotten, but the worship of the more eminent being once established remained in all following ages till the Christian religion prevailed over it.

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Solon having travelled in Egypt & conversed with the Priest of Sais about their antiquities, wrote a Poem of what he had learnt, but did not finish it. And this Poem fell into the hands of Plato who relates out of it[194]that at the mouth of the straits neare Hercules's pillars there was an Island called Atlantis, the people of which nine thousand years before the days of Solon reigned over Libya as far as Egypt & over Europe as far as the Tyrrhene sea, & all this force collected into one body invaded Egypt & Greece & whatever was conteined within the pillars of Hercules but was resisted & stopt by the Athenians & other Greeks & thereby the rest of the nations not yet conquered were preserved. He saith also that in those days the Gods by consent divided the whole earth amongst themselves partly into larger partly into smaller portions & instituted Temples & sacred rites to themselves & that the island Atlantis fell to the lot of Neptune who made his eldest son Atlas king of the whole island a part of which was called Gadir, & that in the history of the said wars mention was made of Cecrops, Erechtheus, Erechthonius, Erisichton & others before Theseus, & also of the weomen who warred with the men & of the habit & statue of Minerva, the study of war in those days being common to men & weomen. By all these circumstances it is manifest that these Gods lived in the ages between Cecrops & Theseus & that the wars which Sesostris made upon the nations by land & sea & the conquest of all the coasts of the mediterranean by his fleet except Greece & the invasion of Egypt by Neptune are here described & how afer the death of Sesostris his captains shared his conquests among themselves (as the captains of Alexander the great did his conquests long after) & instituting Temples & Priests & sacred rites to themselves caused themselves to be worshipped as Gods, & that the island Gadir or Gades was a part of the lot of Neptune. For there Homer[195] places Calypso the daughter of Atlas a little after the Trojan war when Vlysses being shipwrackt escaped thither. Homer calls it the Ogygian island & places it 18 or 20 days sail westward from the island Pheacia or Corcyra. And so many days sail Gades is from Corcyra, recconing with the ancients about a thousand stadia to a days sail. This Island is by Homes described a small one destitute of shipping & cities & inhabited only by Calypso & her weomen who dwelt in a cave in the middle of a wood, <34r> there being no men in the island to assist Vlysses in building a new ship or to accompany him from thence to Corcyra: which description of the island agrees to Gades. And the time when the Gods made war & shared the earth & caused themselves to be worshipped as Gods is by Solon limited to the age of Neptune the brother of Sesostris & grandfather of Calypso & so was but two generations before the destruction of Troy or about 400 years before Solon went into Egypt. But the Priests of Egypt in those 400 years had magnified the stories & antiquity of their Gods so exceedingly as to make them nine thousand years older then Solon & the island Atlantis bigger then all Afric & Asia together & full of people. And because in the days of Solon this great island did not appear they pretended that it was sunk into the sea with all its people. Thus great was the vanity of the Priests of Egypt in magnifying their antiquities.